I have to admit I've come back and worked on it probably 5 times before I finally stapled my butt down to finish it.
It no longer has its fervor, flavor, or passion behind all the drama it describes--it's something I can look back on now and laugh but if you were friends with me on FB during this time, I think it was fairly obvious that our mid-tour trip to Vegas was an interesting one.
We had been talking about going for months, but with not knowing exactly when John was coming home, it was next to impossible to actually plan anything in advance.
Once he was home we still weren't even sure we wanted to go-neither of us were sure that we wanted to leave Brynlee!
I have never left her overnight before, this was a first for me, but ultimately it came down John's family offering to watch her for us that made us decide to go.
I booked the tickets and hotel through Travelocity, whom we've used before, which also got us free tickets to shows.
First lesson learned, insert here: I booked the trip based off time of day we wanted to leave, not the airline.
So, on travel day we packed the car up with one suitcase to check in and one to carry on and drove off to Denver for our adventure, with our flight scheduled to leave at 11 am.
Second lesson learned here: Spirit Airlines, whom we were traveling with, charges MORE for carry on bags than check in bags. $40 to check in yet $50 to carry on if it's not a purse or backpack. So, at check in I opted to save a few bucks by checking in both bags and not carrying on anything but my purse and our personal stuff.
Third lesson learned here: That was a mistake. At least with Spirit Airlines it's a mistake!
We checked in our bags and didn't see them again until the day before we left.
So we get to our gate and everything is good to go.
People have already started drinking (this turned into a big "uh-oh" later on in the night) and were dressed to hit the strip (not necessarily in a good way).
We boarded our flight and were excited to see we were both seated in first class!
John's used to this, being military when flying on civilian flights, I, however, am not, and was pretty stoked.
It lasted about 45 minutes while we sat there...in the plane....at the gate...not going anywhere.
They finally asked us to deplane for mechanical issues and that there would be about an hour delay.
So we went and got lunch and hung out at the gate waiting for our queue...
Two hours later they got on the gate mic and announced that they were having to delay us for another two hours...it's now 4 pm, and the previously mentioned drinking people are starting to get a little rowdy.
We were told over the intercom to plan on boarding at 6 pm.
So we headed up to the DIA USO for some snacks, TV and comfy recliners, charging our phones, realizing we could have driven to Vegas in the time we'd been sitting at the airport.
So at 5:45pm we go back down to our gate and they said that they were still a little bit delayed but to check back in another hour...sigh.
We got dinner and headed back to our gate, about 6:40pm, to find our plane pulling away from the gate and headed down the runway...with our checked in luggage in it's belly and without us!
We ran up to the podium where they shrugged and said they had announced boarding over the intercom (which I swear to this day they didn't) and that there was nothing they could do.
So off our luggage went and there we stayed at DIA with the next available flight not leaving until 10 pm, another three hour wait....
While waiting back at the USO we saw another flight to Vegas through another airline leaving at a gate by the one we had missed. We went down to it, out of curiosity, where we found several of our fellow "missed flight" passengers waiting anxiously to see if they could get on stand by.
There were about 20 of us that "missed our flight."
The people that had been drinking were now getting belligerent and unfortunately security was called down to the gate and several people were being escorted away and detained with reports being filled out...SSIIGGHH.
We finally got on the 10 pm flight and made it to Vegas around 11ish and went to the Spirit Airlines customer service office to find our luggage.
Yeah, so, that flight that we "missed??""
Yeah, it actually never took off.
They got to the run way and turned back around because of more mechanical issues.
Therefore WE were finally in Vegas, our luggage, however was NOT (another couple that were on our original flight and were in the office when we were, had their wedding the next day and her wedding dress was in their 'didn't make it' luggage, oh blessed!).
Oh wait, this hilarious story doesn't end there...that'd be way too easy!
I had gotten our name on a shuttle list to drop us off at hour hotel from the airport, so we got on the shuttle with about 10 other people and started making the rounds up and down the strip waiting our turn to get to the New York, New York.
Well, we drove by it....and around it.....three times, while the driver dropped off people at their other hotels...It got to the point where there was us and one other guy in the shuttle who was staying on the opposite end of the strip. I finally got up and looked on his itinerary of hotel drop-offs and NY, NY was not even on it.
We finally got to our hotel around 1 am.
Middle of the day in Vegas!
We were so exhausted and hungry that we ordered room service, some alcohol (no judgements!), and passed out.
Vive Las Vegas?
Not so much.
John had never been to Vegas before and the time I went, we didn't tour the strip (we were there for a soccer tournament, same weekend Brittany Spears got married in Vegas for like 10 hours, haha) and I wasn't old enough to do anything, so even though I had been there, I was SUPER excited to actually get to do stuff!
We toured the strip, walking up and down and all around, eating and drinking our hearts out.
That "first" night we went to the MGM Grand and saw the Cirque du Soleil show Ka, which was AMAZING.
We had fantastic seats and even John will admit he enjoyed the show.
After the show we checked off one of my personal bucket list items by eating at a Gordon Ramsey restaurant.
I will still make it to Hell's Kitchen one day, but until then, we managed to get last minute reservations to Gordon Ramsey's Pub & Grill (the winner of this season's Hell's Kitchen 'gets' that restaurant!) in Caesar's Palace which was seriously some of the best food I've ever had.
John got the infamous rack of lamb, and I got the infamous scallops (if you are reading this, please read that with his English accent, epic).
The next day we toured more of the Strip which included John jumping off the Stratosphere and us making the insanely long and hot trip out to the Vegas sign for a photo op (obviously my idea, haha).
We ended our last night going over to the Monte Carlo for The Blue Man Group prelude and show which was seriously a blast.
Although a very different style than Ka (TBMG is like an adult rave, but kids can go?) it was extremely entertaining and would totally recommend either show to anyone going to Vegas!
I'm not sure I could have taken much more at that point anyways.
Brynlee stayed with my bro/sis in law and her cousins, Audrey and Emery.
Karen was awesome enough to send us random pics to we could see how B was doing.
This was the first time I had left her for multiple days/nights, but honestly, at this age, I really wasn't worried about her. I knew at least her cousins would be looking out for her. ;)Well that's one more city/experience off OUR bucket list and although it didn't go as planned, I wouldn't have changed anything else about it. We had a GREAT time and it was the exact break we needed to get to hang out the two of us, after 8 months apart (219 days to be exact, but who's counting?).
Now, we need to just get this deployment done, move back to NC, and see what new adventure and travels come our way, but this time, finally, as a family!
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